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South Korean Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun speaks during a COVID countermeasures meeting at the Central Government Complex in Seoul on Dec. 20. (Yonhap News)

While South Korea has signed a contract for supplies of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca, vaccines developed by Pfizer, Janssen, and Moderna are unlikely to be supplied during the first quarter of 2021, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said while explaining the country’s inoculation schedule.

Chung also reaffirmed that inoculations with the AstraZeneca vaccine would “begin as soon as February and no later than March” as previously announced by health authorities.

Appearing on Dec. 20 on the KBS program “Sunday Diagnosis,” Chung said, “In terms of the three companies Pfizer, Janssen, and Moderna, we’re on the brink of signing contracts with two of them, and we’ve been able to agree on most of the conditions for the third.”

“While contracts with the three companies are imminent, we have not received any supply commitments for the first quarter,” he added. This means that of the doses that the government planned to acquire — enough for 44 million people — at least 24 million people’s worth are unlikely to be supplied during the first quarter of 2021, including 10 million of Pfizer’s vaccine, 10 million of Moderna’s, and 4 million of Janssen’s.

South Korea is not expected to announce details concerning the volume and supply timeline for the 10 million doses it plans to acquire through the COVAX Facility, a global joint purchasing initiative, until early next year.

Chung explained that the AstraZeneca vaccine would be approved for domestic use early next year, with inoculations to begin in February or March.

“We have received a commitment for supplies [of the AstraZeneca vaccine] in the first quarter of next year,” he said. “But when in the first quarter has not yet been specified,” he added. “We’d like to begin in February, but [the initial supplies] could arrive in March.”

“According to a BBC broadcast this morning, the AstraZeneca vaccine appears likely to be approved for use between Dec. 28 and 29 by the European Medicines Agency [EMA], which corresponds to South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety [MFDS],” he said.

“The MFDS may also be able to approve it early next year,” he continued.

Questions have been raised over whether domestic inoculations with the AstraZeneca vaccine can begin amid predictions that its approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) may take until the middle of next year. Son Young-rae, director of planning and strategy for the Central Disaster Management Headquarters (CDMH), said on Dec. 20 that “approval by South Korea’s MFDS and approval by the US are separate and independent procedures.”

“That being said, the MFDS will only grant approval once [the vaccine] has been sufficiently tested and its safety verified,” he added.

Chung further offered his first admission that day that South Korea had responded slowly in acquiring the vaccines.

“When the government was operating its vaccine task force in July, the number of domestic cases was in the range of 100 patients [per day], and we didn’t want to increase our vaccine dependence,” he explained.

“Countries like the US and the UK, who are overwhelmed with cases, provided vaccine development funds to the pharmaceutical companies up front. It’s unavoidable that the pharmaceutical companies would differentiate with respect to those countries,” he added.

Meanwhile, some observers in Europe have suggested that South Korea and other Asian countries that have kept the virus largely under control are relying on vaccine administration in Europe and the US as a form of “proxy clinical trial” to determine which vaccines are the safest and most effective.

On Dec. 16, the Financial Times said Asian regulatory authorities had been “happy to let Westerners act as guinea pigs” for the vaccines. The newspaper suggested that South Korea, Vietnam, and Australia regard vaccines as options rather than necessities — at least for the time being — as they make long-term preparations.

By Jung Hwan-bong and Choi Ha-yan, staff reporters, and Shin Gi-sub, senior staff writer

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